“You Had Better Let Mrs Young Have Any Thing She Wants”: What a Joseph Smith Pay Order Teaches about the Plight of Missionary Wives in the Early Church

BYU Studies · Mar 11, 2020 · 42m

Volume 58:2 (2019) - “On a cold, blustery day in 1839 in Commerce, Illinois, a small skiff appeared on the Mississippi River. As rain poured from the sky, a woman huddled in the vessel, trying to protect a two-month-old baby in her arms. She was trying to reach Commerce from Montrose, Iowa, hoping to procure a few potatoes and some flour for her six children. The woman was Mary Ann Angell Young, wife of Brigham Young, who was serving a mission in England. Her plight illustrates the difficulties of the wives of early missionaries in the Church, who were often left to fend for themselves and…